Thread: Border Patrol Brothers Go Into Hiding

Border Patrol Brothers Go Into Hiding
Two agents under suspicion for smuggling drugs and people near San Diego border resign, then disappear.
By Richard Marosi, Times Staff Writer
6:15 PM PDT, June 30, 2006

SAN DIEGO — Two U.S. Border Patrol agents under investigation for suspected alien and drug smuggling abruptly resigned and went into hiding this week after allegedly being tipped off to the probe, according to federal law enforcement sources.

The agents, brothers Raul and Fidel Villarreal, were veteran officers who patrolled the border near San Diego and came under suspicion last year for, among other things, smuggling illegal immigrants in their government vehicles, sources said.

They did not show up for work Monday and later notified supervisors that they had quit due to a family illness. But investigators suspect that someone tipped off the agents and they fled, possibly to a foreign country.

The brothers' disappearance threatens to derail the investigation, which is the latest in a string of unrelated corruption probes that have led to the indictments and convictions of several federal officers along the California-Mexico border.

"Somehow, somebody leaked it and both resigned. They left their badges and government credentials at their father's house. ... Now they're in the ... wind," said a source close to the investigation, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.

Damon Foreman, a spokesman for the border patrol in San Diego, confirmed that the agents were under investigation for suspected smuggling activity and had submitted their resignations.

Raul Villarreal, 36, was the face of the Border Patrol in San Diego a few years ago when he was a spokesman and was interviewed regularly by Spanish-language media. Fidel, 32, worked in the mountains east of San Diego.

At the modest home the men shared with their parents in National City, a woman identifying herself as their mother said her sons still lived with her. She said she didn't know when they would return. They did not respond to a request for comment.

The investigation, which sources said grew out of information gleaned from captured illegal migrants, is being handled by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, one of several agencies that make up the Border Corruption Task Force. Officials at ICE declined to comment.

The agents were suspected of working with Mexican-based criminal networks to smuggle Mexicans and Brazilians into the country, sources said. The migrants would cross the border on their own and then be picked up by one of the brothers while on patrol. The migrants would then be delivered to another driver for the organization, sources said.The status of the investigation is unclear. Such probes often require extensive and delicate evidence gathering, including wiretaps and statements from immigrants, and it is unknown whether authorities were ready to file charges.

"The case isn't dead, it just comes to a screeching halt because the two targets have disappeared. The whole case isn't gone, but you can't move forward anymore," said one source.

Authorities are also investigating the alleged leak of the information, sources said. Officials at multiple federal agencies, including the Border Patrol, had been briefed on the probe. In the past, informants have been known to tip off targets.

The investigation comes amid a recent spate of corruption cases involving Border Patrol agents and customs officers. Authorities say organized smuggling rings, their traditional trafficking routes blocked by increased enforcement, are enlisting corrupt agents to help them get their loads through.

Last month, two customs officers at the Otay Mesa and San Ysidro ports of entry were charged with waving through cars loaded with illegal migrants in exchange for cash.

In a case similar to the brothers' investigation, two supervisory Border Patrol agents were charged earlier this year with smuggling migrants in their government vehicles for a Mexican trafficking organization based in Mexicali.

In a case last year, former Border Patrol Agent Oscar Antonio Ortiz admitted as part of a plea agreement that he conspired to smuggle 100 illegal immigrants into the country.

Ortiz himself was an illegal immigrant, having used a false birth certificate to pass himself off as a U.S. citizen, authorities said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me ... -headlines

I wonder how many foxes we've hired to guard the hen house?

This is just great!! Wonderful. Makes you wonder how loyal of Americans they were. Our world has really become so corrupt.

Family values!

How can our gov't ignore the numbers of criminal invaders?
Rhetorical question.

Ortiz himself was an illegal immigrant, having used a false birth certificate to pass himself off as a U.S. citizen, authorities said.

I hope they are checking the backgrounds of new agents a little more closely. I think new agents should have to pass a security background check the equivilent of at least Secret, and perhaps Top Secret. I also think that hiring preference should be given to veterans.